A modest target - one day's rest for Asia's overworked 'servants'

Suzie Leelawati, 28, is a domestic worker in an upper-middle-class Chinese family in Petaling Jaya, an upscale suburb outside the capital.

Like so many other domestic helpers in Asia, Ms Leelawati works all day, every day of the year.

She also works in the family-owned restaurant and, after that, is lent out to do more work for relatives and neighbours. 'I work every day,' she said. 'I sleep for only four to five hours a day.'

But some help might be coming her way. An Asia-wide campaign by six regional networks of nongovernmental organisations, among them the Hong Kong-based Asian Migrant Centre, is pressuring governments to protect domestic workers like Ms Leelawati. The campaign's target is rather modest - to win them a weekly day off.

'This campaign is critical. Without a day off, foreign domestic workers cannot organise,' said Cynthia Gabriel, regional director of Caram Asia, a UN-funded coalition of Asian NGOs that is helping to co-ordinate the region-wide campaign, 'A day off also means a free day each week for them to access public health services and to do activities that will enhance and meet their psycho-social needs,' said Ms Gabriel.

But one key problem for domestic workers everywhere in Asia, with the exception of Hong Kong and Taiwan, is that national laws classify them as 'servants', not 'workers.'